February 2, 2009

Dear Senator Boxer and EP A Administrator Jackson:

We are the leadership team at CalStar Cement, in Newark, CA. The purposes of this letter are (1) to share some perspectives that we hope may be helpful as you consider and develop policy responses to the recent fly ash spill at TVA’s Kingston plant; and (2) to request a meeting with

you.
CalStar is a Silicon Valley company focused on gr een building materials. With deep background
and credentials in the environmental movement , we are committed to developing new products that are energy efficient in their manufacture and help mitigate climate change when used in the place of traditional building mate rials. We are funded by Foundati on Capital (Menlo Park, CA) and EnerTech Capital, two of the most successf ul venture capital firms in the clean technology
field.

After more than a year of intensive R&D, we will build our first factory this year to make bricks, concrete products and general use cement using fly ash from a We Energies Coal-Fired Power Plant in Wisconsin. Compared to conventional clay bricks, CalStar’s bricks require 80% less energy and emit 80% less CO 2 in their manufacture and incor porate up to 99% post-industrial by-products. Similarly, CalStar concrete produc ts use 80% less energy and emit 80% less CO 2 compared to conventional Portland cement conc rete. These breakthrough products are of great interest to architects, engineers and builders who are focused on green building.

With our company mission centered around environm ental stewardship and our initial focus on fly ash bricks, we have studied and learned a gr eat deal about fly ash. Based on our scientific and technical work, we belie ve three facts in particul ar merit your attention:

1. Fly ash is one of our most po werful tools for reducing the CO 2 footprint of cement

2. Fly ash is safe when incorporated into building materials and in other applications

3. Fly ash is not a hazardous waste, though it is imperative that it be disposed of properly.

We provide more detail on each of these points below.

CalStar Cement, Inc. 6851 Mowry Avenue, Newark, Ca 94560. 510.793.95001. Fly ash is one of our most po werful tools for reducing the CO 2 footprint of cement. Cement is one of the biggest single cont ributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Globally, cement manufacturing generates 2.4 billion tons per year of CO 2 ; by comparison, all passenger automobiles emit about 2.8 billion tons per year. In the U.S., cement manufacture generates over 100 million tons of CO 2 each year.

The simplest and most efficient way to reduce Portland cement’s CO 2 footprint is to use less cement by substituting fly ash. On average across the U.S. today, fly ash is used to replace about 15% of the Portland cement in concrete. Since 1990, over 200 million tons of fly ash have been used in this manner. In obviating the use of ordinary cement that would have generated almost a ton of CO 2 per ton of cement produc ed, this application of fly ash has prevented approximately 200 million tons of CO 2 from being released into the atmosphere during this period . This is significant, a pproximately equivalent to eliminating the emissions of 40 million passenger cars for a year.

We estimate that a similar quantity of CO 2 emissions can be avoided in the U.S. over the coming decade by continuing to expand the acceptance and adoption of fly ash in concrete, bricks and other building materials. The economic recovery plans to invest in infrastructure and buildings will require la rge amounts of concrete. Using high-fly ash mixes is essential to meeting the twin goa ls of infrastructure investments and CO 2 mitigation.

Looking beyond the U.S., a new McKinsey study 1 released on 26 January 2009 cites the use of fly ash in cement and concrete as a key component of gl obal climate change policy, representing almost 490 million tons of annual CO 2 reduction potential at a negative cost, i.e. requiring no carbon tax or subsidy.

2. Fly ash is safe when used in building materials and other applications. Fly ash has been specified as a partial cement replacement and in other building materials for over 50 years. Pioneered by Prof. PK Mehta of UC Berkeley among others, the addition of fly
ash makes concrete more durable and more re liable, and in many parts of the country less costly.

In California, CalTrans requires 25% fly as h blends in most of its mix designs; many
notable structures in our st ate including the San Francisc o-Oakland Bay Bridge and the de Young Museum have been built using c oncrete with 50% fly ash replacement for cement. The U.S. Green Building Council enco urages the use of fly ash in its LEED rating system.

Numerous academic studies and publications by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy, the El ectric Power Research Institute and others

1 McKinsey & Co., Pathways to a Low Carbon Economy , Version 2 of the Global Greenhouse
Gas Cost Abatement Curve.

CalStar Cement, Inc. 6851 Mowry Avenue, Newark, Ca 94560. 510.793.9500document the safety of fly ash when used in concrete and similar a pplications. Notably, leading environmental advocates also endorse the reuse of fly ash in concrete and other construction products. The National Resources Defense Council writes, “For some types of [coal combustion wastes], there are altern ative uses as raw material for construction products such as concrete, plaster, and wallboard. When directed toward these ‘encapsulated uses’, the danger ous chemicals in the waste ar e not subject to erosion and leaching into the environment.” 2

Lisa Evans of Earthjustice (the legal arm of the Sierra Club ) testified in front of a US House of Representative Committee last June that, “Reuse of ash as a component of asphalt, concrete, and gypsum board are legi timate and safe reus es that should be encouraged. In addition, recycling ash in c oncrete can result in a large reduction of greenhouse gases.” 3

CalStar’s R&D confirms these views. Our Board of Directors is adopting an Environmental Safety & Health policy that is unequivocally committed to ensuring that our products and processes meet all appropriate standards for safety. Our raw materials and end products are subjected to the strictest internal and ex ternal testing, and have been found safe in all dimensions at all stages of their life cycle.

3. Fly ash is not a hazardous waste, though it is imperative that it be disposed of properly. Fly ash has been exempted from RCRA regulation since 1982, based on EPA’s strong belief at that time that it was not hazardous. Since then, samples from hundreds of power plants have been tested by EPA, EPRI and others proving that the material rarely exceeds EPA limits on any of the chemicals or metals of concern, and generally falls below those limits by a very large margin. If the RCRA exemption were rescinded today, the vast majority of fl y ash would remain categorized as a nonhazardous waste based on its actual chemical content.

With that said, practicing proper disposal practi ces is essential as 55% of the material is
not recovered for beneficial use. Where beneficial uses cannot be found, we support policies that will protect public safety by eliminating surface impoundments and ensuring that landfills are lined appropriately.

* * * *

2 NRDC, “Dangerous Disposals: Keeping Coal Combustion Waste Out of Our Water Supply”, Natural

Resources Defense Council, 2007.

3 Evans, Lisa, Earthjustice, Testimony before the Subcommittee of Energy and Mineral Resources,

Committee on Natural Resources, U.S. House of Representatives, 2008.

CalStar Cement, Inc. 6851 Mowry Avenue, Newark, Ca 94560. 510.793.9500Increased beneficial use of fly ash represents a rare and valuab le opportunity to address three important national priorities at once: reduci ng greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change, managing a large category of industrial by-products, and creating new green-collar jobs. CalStar’s mission includes all of these priorities.

To realize this opportunity nationally, public pol icy should continue to support the safe and beneficial use of fly ash when properly used in products, as U.S. EPA’s Coal Combustion Products Partnership has sought to do since 2003. At the same time, public safety needs to be protected with appropriate laws regarding fly as h management and disposal. We believe both of these policy objectives can be achieved.

We respectfully request a meeting with you to pr ovide additional clarification and information.

Sincerely,

Marc Porat, PhD Founder, Chairman and CEO

Thomas M. Pounds Chief Operating Officer

Signatories:

Paul Holland, Foundation Capital
Member of the CalStar Cement Board of Directors

Bill Kingsley, EnerTech Capital
Member of the CalStar Cement Board of Directors

Amitabha Kumar, PhD Director of R&D, CalStar Cement

Kumar Mehta, PhD, author, “High-Perfor mance, High Volume Fly Ash Concrete” Emeritus Professor, U.C. Berkeley, and CalStar advisor

Luke Pustejovsky VP Business Development, CalStar Cement

Julie Rapoport, PhD, PE, LEED AP Director of Product Development, CalStar Cement

CalStar Cement, Inc. 6851 Mowry Avenue, Newark, Ca 94560. 510.793.9500CalStar Cement, Inc. 6851 Mowry Avenue, Newark, Ca 94560. 510.793.9500